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Chicago Tribune
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: ‘A Lie of the Mind' is a Chicago-style treatment of Sam Shepard's most difficult play
With 'Fool for Love' playing at the Steppenwolf Theatre and now 'A Lie of the Mind' at the thriving Raven Theatre, Chicago is having something of a Sam Shepard revival. The late, great bard of the lonely American prairie and desert went out of favor here for a while; it's good to have his work back and being interpreted by a younger generation of artists. I found Steppenwolf's 'Fool for Love' overly styled and tentative, but that's far from the case with director Azar Kazemi's Raven production, filled with compelling young actors such as Ian Maryfield, Arash Fakhrabadi, John Drea and Gloria Imseih Petrelli going for broke in Raven's intimate theater. Now 40 years old, 'A Lie of the Mind' started out as a three-act, four-hour play, although Raven is using the revised version, first produced by the New Group in 2010, that clocks in at around 2 hours and 40 minutes — still nearly twice as long as 'Fool for Love.' The piece has accurately been described as the final episode in a quintet of familial dramas that also includes Shepard's 'Curse of the Starving Class,' 'Buried Child,' 'True West' and 'Fool for Love' and it's probably fair to say that it's Shepard's last great 20th century masterpiece. His 'Long Day's Journey Into Night,' kinda. All of those plays deal with broken families and romantic relationships, some subject to healing, some not. All of them are about the disconnect between the sparse natural environment in these United States and the human craving for intimacy. And all deal with American iconography: more specifically, the nation's foundational reliance on mythology and self-dramatization and the largely detrimental impact of all of that on, well, just making love and having children and trying to keep the wolf from the door. Whatever else I have to say about Kazemi's show here, this is a most serious production, one that understands this great writer strikingly well and that wrestles admirably with what is, I think, his most difficult work. All the characters in 'Lie of the Mind,' even the parental figures played here by Meighan Gerachis (in an exceptional stretch of her long career in Chicago theater) and Rom Barkhordar, who plays Baylor, the classic brutal Shepard father figure. The plot? It involves a young marriage where there has been horrific domestic abuse and both parties, aggressor and victim, have gone back to their original families in a kind of psychic retreat. Things go from there. Thus the piece tells the story of two agonized families striving for, oh, I don't know, coherence? Forgiveness? Self-awareness? Revenge? Redemption? Probably all of the above. Compared to other productions, which have fused much music into the show and used a sparser and more experimental or meta visual aesthetic, Kazemi situates the play more in terms of domestic realism or, if you like, a storefront Chicago gestalt. That's fair enough, especially given the resources at Raven, and it often works very well in terms of helping us identify with these struggling characters and reminded us of the autobiographical underpinning of all this man's plays. At other times, though, it fights Shepard's more surreal inclinations, especially as the play goes on and its non-realistic elements become more and more pervasive. The show's strength is the potent and courageous ensemble acting, as adroitly and generously directed by Kazemi (it will get yet better too). Its weakness is an intermittent lack of vulnerability and an occasional disinclination to leave all of that behind and pull out individual characters who have figured out that their travails flow from the difficulty of stopping American family life from turning into a Sam Shepard play. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@ When: Through March 22 Where: Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes
Chicago Tribune
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Of Notoriety: Munster's Cliff Chamberlain in cast of now-extended ‘Fool for Love' at Steppenwolf
Stepping into a character role featured in any of the plays by the late playwright Sam Shepard takes both the chosen actor and theater audiences on travels to the darkest reaches of the mind. Shepard, who died at age 73 in 2017, explored the gritty and shadowy underside of life and the consequences of decisions, trying to balance and sort out the good from the bad. Steppenwolf Theatre Company has already added another week of performances for their stage revival of Pulitzer Prize winner Shepard's dark and beautiful early masterpiece 'Fool for Love,' playing into next month through Sunday, March 23, 2025, in Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theater, 1650 N. Halsted St. in Chicago. Directed by Jeremy Herrin, 'Fool for Love' features Steppenwolf ensemble members united for the four-member cast starring Cliff Chamberlain, previously seen in 'The Minutes' and 'Superior Donuts,' Tim Hopper from 'The Thanksgiving Play' and 'Downstate,' and Caroline Neff known from her roles in 'POTUS' and 'Another Marriage' playing opposite new to the Steppenwolf stage Nick Gehlfuss as seen on TV's 'Chicago Med,' 'Chicago PD' and 'Chicago Fire.' Set in a seedy motel room in the Mojave Desert, May, played by Neff, and Eddie, played by Gehlfuss, have been reunited, and the play opens with the couple trapped under a cloud of regret, soaked in booze, brawling and fears from the past looming over their sexual connection. Both must also endure the haunting memories of their parents, especially 'the Old Man,' portrayed as the rocking chair phantom guise of Hopper, who smiles at the control he holds over others. Confused Martin, the character played by Chamberlain, shows up to the motel planning to take May on a movie date but first must confront the couple's growing tensions and tormented twisted and intertwined lives from their pasts. Chamberlain is an actor who lives in Munster with his wife and family, and though he's been familiar with Shepard's plays for the past decades, 'Fool for Love' was one of the works he hadn't read until he was considering joining the production. 'I hadn't read this play or even seen it before, so this was fun for me to approach this work as a new play for me even though it's been around since 1983,' Chamberlain said. In 1985, Shepard played the male lead character Eddie for the film adaptation starring Kim Basinger as directed by Robert Altman. The play and later film version were born during the same decade as Shepard's 25-year relationship span with actress Jessica Lange (whom he has two children with). The couple had met while both starring in the 1982 film 'Frances' with Lange as the title character based on the life of Hollywood movie star Frances Farmer, who suffered from mental illness and spent her final years living in Indianapolis. Steppenwolf Artistic Directors Glenn Davis, who is originally from South Holland, and Audrey Francis agree Shepard's legacy and work shares a foundation with their theater space. 'Through the decades, Steppenwolf has returned again and again to Sam Shepard's searing body of work,' Davis said. 'His plays, filled with tension, symbol and muscle, pose delights and demands for actors and audiences alike. 'Fool for Love' is no exception, with Eddie and May's iconic power struggle at the heart of this prize-winning masterpiece. It's lightning in a bottle.' Chamberlain joined the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble in 2018 with riveting onstage turns in productions like 'Belleville' and 'Clybourne Park.' He will be seen in the Netflix upcoming film 'RIP.' 'My wife is from Munster, and that's where we live now with our three daughters,' Chamberlain said. 'I'm originally from Los Angeles, and after I met my wife in Chicago, we married and had our two daughters before moving back to California, where we had our third daughter. But with the pandemic, we decided to move back home here to Munster, and we love it. My wife owns her own business. We moved into the house where my wife grew up.' Tickets for 'Fool for Love' range from $20 to $138 by calling 312-335-1650 or visit Steppenwolf Theatre Company ranks as one of the nation's premier ensemble theater companies with 49 members who are among the top actors, playwrights and directors in the field. Founded in 1976, Steppenwolf started as a group of teens performing in the basement of a church. The Steppenwolf Education and Engagement program serves nearly 15,000 teens annually, including the schools of Northwest Indiana.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Afternoon Briefing: Dexter Reed settlement in limbo
Good afternoon, Chicago. A controversial settlement remains in legislative limbo after a deal to award $1.25 million to the family of a man shot and killed by police after firing at officers first was not brought up for a planned vote today. Aldermen had appeared poised for a tense debate over the settlement recommended by city attorneys for the family of Dexter Reed as a way to avoid a potentially more costly payout in court. But Ald. Pat Dowell, chair of the City Council's Finance Committee, withheld the settlement when it came up for a vote. Here's what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices. Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History President Donald Trump will pardon Democratic former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, according to a person familiar with his plans. Trump commuted Blagojevich's 14-year sentence for political corruption charges during his first term. Read more here. More top news stories: Two major winter storms expected to hit Chicago area this week Madigan jurors return for 9th day of deliberations The six-bedroom, 5,750-square-foot Victorian painted lady-style house in Lakeview that rocker Billy Corgan owned from 1993 until 2001 sold once again Feb. 3, this time for $2.5 million. Read more here. More top business stories: Lurie Children's Hospital suspends gender-affirming surgeries for patients under 19, following executive order McDonald's says improving international sales helped overcome US weakness in fourth quarter The United Center crowd of 21,297, many of whom were wearing Steph Curry jerseys and unabashedly rooting for the Warriors Saturday night, left the building en masse after Curry was removed with just under four minutes remaining. Read more here. More top sports stories: 3 storylines for the Chicago White Sox entering spring training, including Luis Robert Jr. trade watch 3 questions for the Chicago Cubs entering spring training, including whether they will sign slugger Alex Bregman Here is a clear case for why Lorraine Hansberry's story about a Black Chicago family is one of the best plays of the 20th century. Read more here. More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories: Concerts for Sir Andrew Davis: The longtime baton of Lyric Opera died last year, his son is safeguarding his memory Review: 'Fool for Love' has its moments but stops short of the Steppenwolf of old The president said Palestinians in Gaza would not have a right to return under his plan for U.S. 'ownership' of the war-torn territory, contradicting other officials in his administration who have sought to argue Trump was only calling for the temporary relocation of its population. Read more here. More top stories from around the world: Judge finds Trump administration hasn't fully followed his order to unfreeze federal spending Third judge blocks President Donald Trump's order ending birthright citizenship for kids of people in US illegally
Chicago Tribune
09-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: ‘Fool for Love' has its moments but stops short of the Steppenwolf of old
Sam Shepard, scribe of the angst-ridden American prairie, was the playwright who made Steppenwolf's bones. In 1982, the theater company's signature staging of his 'True West' was the apotheosis of a certain kind of Chicago-style theater: aggressive, in-your-face, compelled by uncontrollable impulses, no holds barred. Shepard himself did not actually have a close relationship with Steppenwolf in that era, the late playwright once told me, but no matter. The two are linked in Chicago theater mythology. And so when Steppenwolf revives 'Fool for Love,' Shepard's raw 1983 drama about a compulsively dysfunctional couple, May (Caroline Neff) and Eddie (Nick Gehlfuss), who resemble combatants in a human rodeo as they lunge at each other during a single night in their seedy motel room on the edge of the Mojave Desert, it intersects with its own history. Especially since 'Fool for Love' itself was produced there in a similarly famous production with Rondi Reed and William Petersen. Given that context, the new staging from director Jeremy Herrin also featuring Tim Hopper as the Old Man and Cliff Chamberlain as the whiplashed latecomer to the party, feels too tame. The show has its potent moments, mostly courtesy of the gutsy Neff, who throws herself courageously at the play without enough coming back her way, and the production knows how to exploit the play's sardonic humor. But I doubt you'll walk out the door feeling like the case was made for doing this play in the here and now. The production feels like it operates from the outside, looking back at the play quizically, as an external thing, a past moment, rather than operating in real-time and pouring out its insides from its molten core. I found myself wondering if the issue was the age of the script itself. Steppenwolf certainly has not lost its knack for intensity and fearlessness, as anyone who saw the Broadway-bound 'Purpose,' 'Little Bear Ridge Road' or 'Bug' can attest. This kind of amoral exploration of raw sexual desire certainly clashes with today's more moralistic theater sensibility; time (and copycats) have made the play's formative dreamscape feel much less radical. The play also has to compete with the memory of Robert Altman's 1985 film version of 'Fool for Love,' which, despite flopping at the box office, understood this landscape and gave these two characters real nobility in their hapless obsession with each other. But I don't think that's the issue. 'Fool for Love' still has much to say about what self-delusional parents can do to their children and, once so done to, how those children fight to contain the damage even as it is writ large on their psyches. This is a play about compulsion and giving over to raw desire — hardly archaic in a country whose moral center currently seems as elusive as a Mohave porcupine. And, to some degree, the play is about the pure willfulness of sexual love and a meditation on the pluses and minuses thereof. All things still worth exploring in the theater. Herrin's show has an atmospheric set from Todd Rosenthal, red neon signs and all, and plenty of other Southwestern iconography in its gestalt, but that can't just be the setting. It should ooze from the show's rhythms. The direction needs more of the stultifying heat of a nighttime human rodeo in the desert, more of its sensual soundscape, a better acquaintance with its pauses and silences and its latent impact on human desire. It doesn't seem to fully understand its ability to function as a dangerous aphrodisiac. 'Fool for Love' is centered on the motel room passion between the two central characters but there is an Old Man off to the side, telling the story. Herrin seems to have gone for simplicity with how he conceived Hopper's role, and fair enough. But there's heavy symbolic weight on this character's back and, somehow, the way he is rooted to his chair throughout doesn't entirely work in this incarnation, rendering him too peripheral. Hopper is a superb actor, as is intermittently clear here, and yet he somehow feels stuck there in a separate world, distinct from the one the Old Man actually has conceived. In more ways than one. The show is worth seeing for Neff's raw determination and I suspect it will deepen over time. But I wish Gehlfuss, who has much talent, would stop playing a cowboy with a rope, which he does perfectly well, and wrestle with being one instead. Then we might feel that this couple has no choice about what they are doing with and to each other and have to deal with all the implications of that on the way home. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@ Review: 'Fool for Love' (3 stars) When: Through March 23 Where: Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St. Running time: 1 hour, 5 minutes Tickets: $20-$138 at 312-335-1650 and Originally Published: February 9, 2025 at 1:32 PM CST
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Afternoon Briefing: Thornton Township trustees fire allies of Tiffany Henyard
Good afternoon, Chicago. Just over a week after a Thornton Township meeting broke out in brawl involving Supervisor Tiffany Henyard, anti-Henyard activists and others, township trustees met yesterday to discuss their budget proposal and fire two employees. Trustees Christopher Gonzalez, Stephanie Wiedeman and Carmen Carlisle required members of the public watch yesterday's special meeting from the township basement while the board convened upstairs 'to ensure a safe and orderly board meeting' following last week's chaos. Gonzalez was appointed supervisor pro tem in Henyard's absence. Here's what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices. Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History The teachers union has been negotiating its contract with Chicago Public Schools since April, and as part of its proposals has pitched language that SEIU 73 said would allow certain classroom assistants who are CTU members to do work that is currently done by special education classroom assistants. Read more here. More top news stories: On 8th day of deliberations, Madigan jury gets deep in the legal weeds 3 buildings catch fire overnight on Northwest Side in Belmont Cragin The new tariff on China will take a toll on trade between Illinois and China. It could really complicate matters for farmers in the state, who worry more retaliatory tariffs could be placed on the agricultural products they export if the nations' trade war escalates. Read more here. More top business stories: Officials say Lake County workforce outlook is strong, but warn of future challenges New Aurora fashion boutique celebrates African craftsmanship Another NBA trade deadline passed Thursday with a familiar sense of dissatisfaction in Chicago. Is that … it? Read more here. More top sports stories: Tracking the Chicago Sky's moves in free agency: Dana Evans traded to the Las Vegas Aces Tom Brady is ready for another Super Bowl debut — calling the game as Fox Sports' lead analyst Soccer Mommy's music is easy to fall in love with. It's poignant and piercing — the kind of music you'd listen to during your most vulnerable moments as a teen or young adult. Read more here. More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories: In 'Fool for Love' at Steppenwolf, Caroline Neff takes on an iconic role Here's your Super Bowl celebrity lineup, from Taylor Swift's (possible) guests to hometown stars The International Criminal Court called on its member states to stand up against sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump, saying that the move was an attempt to 'harm its independent and impartial judicial work.' Read more here. More top stories from around the world: Judge in Boston to consider latest bid to block Trump's birthright citizenship order House GOP rushing to produce Trump's big budget bill with tax cuts, program cuts and other promises
